I will be visiting these locations during Summer and I always enjoy checking out used bookshops whenever I visit the US as they often have a lot of different authors. I know a lot of people have moved onto e-books, but I still enjoy picking up paperbacks and wanted to find out if anyone had any suggestions for used bookshops with good romance sections in Boston, DC or Seattle?

I will be staying in the main city centres, but visiting most of the tourist trap areas so am happy to travel to any places accesible by public transport without going too far e.g a 4-hour journey!

In the Washington DC area, I would recommend Silver Spring Books, partly owned by Cynthia Parker. (She's the romance book expert and collector at the store and she has plenty.) The store is within walking distance from the Silver Spring metro stop on the red line at 938 Bonifant Street.

I cannot believe there's a Youtube video of Cynthia and the store, but here's one that someone created for a class project! Ha!

In Seattle, try Elliott Bay Book Company (though I should admit I do not know if they have used books there after they moved - they had a huge used book section at their old store downtown, though) http://www.elliottbaybook.com/

Twice Sold Tales is good, too, but I do NOT recommend the Capitol Hill neighborhood location unless they have remodeled the store and put in new carpet and taken the cats out. The place was famous for the cat pee smell.

I second Sandlynn's recommendation of Silver Spring Books. Cynthia is both extremely knowledgable about romance and very nice. The shop is small but packed with romance, mysteries, and various other books

If you are looking for a broad selection of used books, from fiction to non-fiction to various genres, you should try Second Story Books. They have a store in DC and one in Rockville. The DC store rarely has romance, although they will have authors like Nora Roberts and Jennifer Crusie, whom they consider general fiction. I've never been to the Rockville store, but I've heard that they do have romance. They are a far bigger operation than Cynthia's. I've attached a link to their website, so you may be able to search for specific authors/titles before you go.

Another used book store in the DC area that has (or, at least, had) a sizeable selection of romance is the Book Alcove in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which was bought out by another bookseller and is now called Wonder Book.

Thought I should also add a mention of FOLio at the Chevy Chase, DC public library. FOLio (for Friends Of the Library) sponsors a used book sale every Saturday, located in a big room on the second floor of the library. Until Labor Day trade PB are $1 (they are usually $2), and other books are priced as marked, usually only $3 or $4. My husband bought 10 jazz CDs there today for $20. They also have MM PB, including lots of mysteries and romance, for 50 cents. Not only do readers get great bargains, but it supports the library.

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who made suggestions about used bookstores. I particularly liked Silver Spring Books in DC which had an excellent collection and Cynthia was very friendly and helpful, she really does have a passion for romance books and knows her stuff. If you ever go to DC then I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in used books.